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An approach to detecting differential item functioning using the Rasch model with equivalent-group cross-validation was investigated. College students taking the Dental Admission Test, were divided by gender (936 females and 1,537 males) into 2 different samples. Rasch analyses were performed on both samples. Data were recalibrated after misfitting persons and items were removed. Resulting difficulties from the two samples were compared, and some potentially biased items were identified. Each sample was then randomly divided into two equivalent samples, resulting in four groups, two of males and two of females. Rasch calibrations were again performed. Items were rank-ordered, and items with the same rankings were selected for equating. Link constants were calculated by selecting one of the four groups as the ground scale. Using the t-test, item-by-item comparisons were conducted within each group pair after the equating. Different difficulty calibrations were compared across the different groups. The significantly different difficulties may have been caused by sampling fluctuation if the t-value was significant when comparing groups with the same gender membership. Finally, identified items were examined for bias. The final set of biased items was then distributed to the test construction committee for possible modifications. One table contains descriptive statistics from the analysis. (Author/SLD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert